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"This is a big target for the team so we wanted to do something really good," Trek team liaison Matt Shriver told Cyclingnews at the team hotel. "We've done bikes with Shepard Fairey in the past and we have a good relationship with him and the bikes were really successful before."

Trek and RadioShack didn't just want to outfit the rider with fancy bikes just because, though. While Horner and teammate (and three-time Tour of California winner) Levi Leipheimer will use the freshly painted machines throughout the eight-stage event, Trek will put them up for auction shortly afterward with all proceeds being donated to charity.

"The guys will race them all week and then they'll go up on auction around USPRO time," said Shriver.

California's state animal is prominently displayed on the seat cluster. Photo: James Huang

According to Shriver - the former Fort Lewis College cycling coach who famously paced Armstrong to his Leadville 100 victory in 2009 - Fairey designed all of the bike's graphics but the actual task of painting the frames was done in-house at Trek's Waterloo, Wisconsin factory.

"It's a long process," he said. "You have to lay one set of graphics down, do some paint, lay the other set of graphics down, more paint. It takes between twelve and fourteen hours per frame."

One thing that has always set Horner apart, however, is his somewhat unusually upright riding position. Whereas most of the rest of the RadioShack team opt for Trek's most aggressive 'H1' geometry variant, Horner instead goes with the taller H2 version, which is even further augmented with 25mm of headset spacers for a relatively sedate saddle-to-bar drop of just 55mm.

Taller front end notwithstanding, Horner's bike is still impressively light, however. Total weight as pictured (without bottles) is just 7.08kg (15.61lb).